Adwanted UK & Colourtext have harnessed a never-seen-before dataset to shed light on the crucial relationship between word density and the effectiveness of audio advertising. Adwanted UK runs Audiotrack, a distribution service that delivers audio adverts ready for play out directly from creative agencies to all UK and Republic of Ireland linear radio station, community radio station, DAB stations, digital streaming and podcast platforms. Colourtext, a unique audience research and consumer insights company with deep expertise in market segmentation, advertising effectiveness, data analytics and survey design, were given exclusive access to this dataset and uncovered an array fascinating insights. The standout finding of our study has been the impact of word rate, or word density (expressed as words-per-minute), on the effectiveness of audio adverts. We anticipated this insight would change the way brands think about the creative effectiveness of audio advertising, and we weren't wrong. Word has spread about the research, not just in the UK, but in other countries too, with agencies making suggestions to advertisers to revisit their creatives armed with these insights. By creating an innovative dashboard tool that's powered by complex data fusion between the Adwanted-run Audiotrack and Radiocentre's Big Audio Datamine datasets and elegant regression models, our study has made an impact all around the world on how brands approach audio advertising and improve standards of creativity.

Just under 7 million Brits are experiencing some form of gambling harm. More concerningly 75% of this group are worried about getting help because they fear others will judge them. GambleAware are a leading independent charity dedicated to keeping people safe from gambling harm across Great Britain. But, to fulfil this mission, they need to break down the stigma that’s preventing this 75% from using their advice, tools and support. When we looked at the reasons people had turned to GambleAware we were surprised to see the key drivers were feelings of anxiety and concern, not financial loss. This highlighted the need to show GambleAware are an organisation that truly understands these feelings. To do this we conducted research interviews with over 50 people who have lived experience of gambling harm. Our interviewees blew us away. They naturally described how gambling made them feel using vivid, visceral metaphors and it became clear that the most effective approach would be to simply amplify their real voices. None of our audio ads were scripted- they were pieced together using snippets from our original interviews. The feelings described were then emphasised with SFX. For example, one person said gambling felt like a monsoon, so we overlaid sounds of torrential rain. The campaign has driven real-world impact. It’s led to a 9% increase in calls to the National Gambling Helpline and a 43% increase in visits to the GambleAware website. Over 80,000 people have also used their online self-assessment tool which provides personalised support.

THE INDEED JOB JUKEBOX: INSPIRING BETTER WORK THROUGH MUSIC Indeed, the world’s leading job site is driven by their mission to ‘help all people get jobs’. Our challenge was to inspire younger workers to consider new roles on Indeed given their higher likelihood of switching jobs. Our research identified that music helps GenZ to discover things about themselves. Recognising that both our music tastes and job choices are tied to our personalities, we got workers to reconsider their careers through the lens of their music. Together, Forever Audio and EssenceMedia.com harnessed beta technology on Spotify to build a custom platform called The Indeed Job Jukebox, marrying Indeed’s vast job search data with Spotify’s individualised listening data. We identified the most unique music listening trends for the top 22 job categories on Indeed, representing 820 job titles. Users’ listening history was compared against these results to generate their personal top-five career matches, each with a unique musical fact. Users were prompted to explore jobs on Indeed, and share their results on social with a bespoke graphic and an invitation for their friends. Dynamic ad copy and ad soundtrack, tailored to the user's listening in real time, directed people to the Job Jukebox to build interest. The experience hit a high note. The engagement rate exceeded benchmarks by 2.5x, while the social shares beat the benchmark by 8x. Over 13,500 users have been driven to Indeed to find better work so far, exceeding the benchmark by 3x!

With the demise of the cookie, changes in privacy laws, the growth of tech products like smart speakers and an abundance of great content, the industry is now looking for more advanced solutions. Global has spent the last 12 months refreshing its DAX offering, focussing on areas including data creativity (to find new ways for buyers to target at scale across all devices), delivering frictionless access for supply and demand and growing content to truly reflect where audio is now. This has confirmed DAX’s position as the trusted partner solution, for the new digital age.

Over the last 10 years, the way in which audiences listen to their favourite radio stations has drastically changed. Having been originally touted as your own personal assistant, smart speakers have effectively replaced the role of the Radio, with 48% of UK households now having at least one Smart speaker device in their homes, resulting in over 60% of commercial radio listening being consumed across these devices. The rise of Smart Speakers has presented a challenge for audio publishers. The tech giants that operate these devices allow little to no insight into audiences, hindering the ability to build commercial targeting, rendering the inventory 0% addressable, low yield and minimal value to clients. Introducing Ensemble, the three-pronged solution that would make Octave’s smart speaker inventory addressable. The first step in our solution consisted of the Octave, Bauer and News product teams agreeing to a campaign that would persuade currently registered users to link their Alexa accounts to their Bauer and News accounts. To enrich the data, Octave’s product team worked with Covatic to build behaviour-based audience segments. The final step to bolster addressability and strengthen our data sets centred around targeting using SP data. Since the launch of Ensemble, there has been a 25% increase in addressable impressions across Octave’s inventory, increasing the scale and reach of targeted campaigns. It has also delivered a 58% increase in the digital IP yield as well as a 375% increase versus broadcast, showcasing that Octave’s inventory is now higher percentage higher percentage of addressability.

Hubvisor and Deezer collaborated to revolutionize audio advertising, aiming to double Deezer's revenues with an innovative ad tech system. Traditionally, audio ad tech was limited by a full-stack solution (ad server + SSP + sales house) demanding exclusivity, which restricted competition. We changed the game this by introducing a system inspired by display advertising's header bidding, allowing multiple partners equal access to inventory, thus fostering competition and maximizing revenue. The solution involved creating a server-side architecture tailored for audio streaming, a complex task that took 10 months and involved top engineers and ad tech experts. This led to two major achievements: integrating major DSPs (like Hawk and The Trade Desk) to directly compete in auctions, and incorporating Google Ad Manager into the system instead of being the central and final decision maker, allowing any partner to directly compete with Google's demand with full neutrality. All sales channel were included in the system (deals, PG, direct sales and open auction). The results were staggering. Deezer's programmatic revenues doubled, with DSPs integrated into the new system contributing over half of these revenues and offering 50% higher CPM values than the average. Direct DSP bids through the new system were about 40% higher in value than those through the traditional ad server's SSP. This success also led to an increase in Deezer's direct sales rate card due to higher programmatic CPMs. A UI was also developed for Deezer's sales team to manage programmatic deals and guaranteed programs directly with DSPs. Our video: https://youtu.be/QnRFjQkfE6A

Behind the Lock is a brand new series by WhatsApp from Meta and Acast Creative, which gets the nation's favourite podcasters playing games designed to reveal the contents of their real life, usually private chats. Why? Because WhatsApp never would.

‘Boots Pharmacy: You Can Count on Us’ wasn’t just another audio campaign; it was Boots stepping up when it was needed most. When 600 Lloyds Pharmacies nationwide shut their doors, Boots brought its extensive pharmacy network, expertise and commitment to accessible healthcare to the forefront. The primary objective was to drive an uplift in the number of people getting their prescriptions at Boots, creating a campaign that showcased expertise, convenience, and a personalised understanding of individual needs. Through AI-powered social listening, we identified key pain points such as long wait times and increased travel times. This resulted in an insight-led creative approach using Billie Piper as the brand voice, reassuring customers of the enduring presence and reliability of Boots, emphasising ‘You Can Count on Us’. A tightly geo-targeted digital audio campaign was executed to reach communities most affected by closures. Leveraging dynamic ads across various audio platforms, the campaign surpassed expectations with 17,154,170 impressions, a 97.2% listen-through rate, and a significant 1.4% uplift in purchase of Boots pharmacy items. In summary, the audio campaign not only effectively addressed the immediate concerns of pharmacy closures but also reinforced the brand's commitment to being a steadfast healthcare partner. The results showcased unprecedented success, with Boots emerging as the answer for customers' pharmacy needs, aligning seamlessly with the brand promise of being 'With you. For life.'

The 2023 Black Friday campaign with Currys & Bauer Media aimed to revitalise consumer interest in Black Friday sales. Leveraging insights and a multi-channel approach, the goal was to make 2023 Currys' most successful Black Friday period yet. Previous campaign insights and consumer behaviour analysis informed our partnership with Bauer, resulting in high-impact content across Absolute and Kiss Radio and social platforms. The 4-week campaign employed on-air spotlight reads and social drivers to direct consumers to custom landing pages, generating momentum leading up to Black Friday. Live in-show promotions and a £10,000 competition prize enhanced engagement, leading to a 13% YoY increase in Black Friday Deal Sales and a 15% margin uplift. Specific category uplifts, such as Gaming (+4.4% YoY) and Mobile (+27% YoY), underscored the campaign's impact. Independent brand lift research showed a +36% increase in consideration for household electrical items. Sustained audience engagement was evident with 15,349 new competition entries post-Cyber Monday. Currys Price Promise awareness rose by 19%, and awareness of flexible credit options increased by 21%, surpassing competitors. High recall figures of 71% and a +22% increase in consideration of Currys for Christmas positioned the brand favourably for the holiday season. Through harnessing the power of radio and its strength in driving short term results, the Currys 2023 Black Friday campaign successfully countered consumer cynicism, delivering immediate results and establishing meaningful traction with a key audience, solidifying Currys as a retailer for both price promise and flexible credit plus great range on Black Friday and beyond!

To launch the announcement of the British Heart Foundation’s largest ever research grant into genetic heart disease, we raised awareness of how donations to the BHF are used by doing something that had never been done before on UK radio. An idea that wasn’t an ‘off the shelf’ solution. An idea that cut through, not just by disrupting a mass market media experience, but by also disrupting the ads of some of the UK’s most well-known brands. All with just 28 days from brief to launch to pull it off.

Eco anxiety is very real, it can motivate us to take action. However, it can also have the reverse effect. It can be debilitating. It can be overwhelming. It can leave us feeling engulfed in the doom of it all, ready to throw in the towel. Working with podcasters across the Acast network, we produced a slate of ads, sponsorships, branded episodes and an original series of meditative resources. All in aim of taking the fight to ‘eco-anxiety’. Our initiative aimed to educate podcast listeners about this phenomenon, before equipping them with practical solutions. This included a wealth of climate tips applicable to home life, where 20% of CO2 is generated. Additionally, we crafted five resources, spanning guided meditations to tranquil green noise soundscapes, offering listeners a resource to decompress whenever eco-anxiety next takes over.

This submission explores a true David and Goliath story, one of how BRITA overcame the Goliath-sized 'Big Water' and multiple legal hurdles to inform the British public of bottled water’s environmental impact. Bottled water is a $300 billion global industry, with annual UK consumption doubling to roughly 3 billion bottles of water from 2013-2018, contributing 678,023,069kg-e of CO2 each year. In comparison, 1L of BRITA filtered water has a carbon footprint over 90% smaller than bottled water - if BRITA could convert bottled water drinkers, it could tackle an environmental impact 100k greater than the company’s own footprint. Forming part of an integrated campaign designed to exploit big water, our challenge with audio was… complicated. Simply, we had a dilemma: how could we lift the veil on big water, grab people’s attention, and do so without getting sued, after numerous variations failed to pass through Clearcast? The solution- do the opposite of what a creative agency should do; strip out all creativity, and let the facts speak for themselves. The result was more than we could imagine. Yes, the ad outperformed forecasted metrics for audio, but more importantly, we delivered a punch in the gut to a specific big water brand. Upon hearing our message, a national sporting body got in touch to discuss unseating a long-term partner of 15 years and made BRITA its Official Water Partner. The partnership will save thousands of single use plastic bottles from being used annually at sporting events. Now that’s a result.

BASF is the world’s largest Agricultural Solutions company and has a broad portfolio of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and seed treatments. BASF helps farmers to sustainably increase the yields and the quality of their crops without compromising the environment. Fresh Air Production is the UK’s leading producer of podcasts for brands. BASF wanted to create a differentiated and entertaining podcast that goes behind-the-scenes of agricultural innovation and informs listeners about things they generally didn’t already know. Improving the sustainability of agriculture is a priority of BASF and it extends far beyond the production of food. Farmers share the global challenges of climate change mitigation, increasing space for nature and protecting resources and BASF wanted to highlight the sustainable ways they are utilising their resources to better the environment and how they help the local communities they work with. The Science Behind Your Salad podcast aims to shine a spotlight on the innovation, science and technology ensuring that planet and people stay healthy.

In 2014, Global launched DAX, a pioneering digital advertising exchange, connecting brands with audiences at scale across digital audio. But ten years later the foundations we built DAX on, were in danger of becoming obsolete due to huge changes in the market; cookie deprecation, fragmented measurement and crazy bidding wars for flagship podcasts as new types of audio content emerged - all against the backdrop of a stagnant media market thanks to the economic slowdown. So in 2023 we took our much loved audio advertising platform, gave it a make-over and re-loaded it to truly reflect where audio is now.

Founded in 2020 by podcasters for podcasters, Adelicious is the leading independent British podcasting hosting platform. Our founders recognised the need for honesty, integrity, and fairness in the podcast advertising landscape. Their vision led to Adelicious, a platform built around quality inventory, excellent customer service, a podcaster-first mentality, and innovation. Today, as an invite-only network, we're the trusted choice for some of the world's leading podcasts, with more than 30m global listens per month. At Adelicious, we believe in a personalised, results-driven approach that ensures both podcasters and advertisers benefit from our hands-on expertise. Our direct relationships with every partner we work with exemplifies our dedication to excellence. Whether it's through host-reads, pre-recorded spot ads, or bespoke branded content, we make it our mission to connect brands with highly engaged podcast audiences. Adelicious is where premium meets personal, offering a unique podcasting experience that's designed to deliver real value and success in the podcasting world.

The media landscape is transforming at a quicker rate than ever before. At Bauer Media we’ve been challenged to adapt to increased digitalisation and changing audience and advertiser needs, something we’ve successfully done through innovation, insight and the power of brilliant people.

The second outing of the hugely successful BBC drama The Capture saw a return to the world of high level international corruption, deepfakes and disinformation. As part of the campaign to promote the new series, BBC Creative teamed up with AI audio specialists Respeecher and BBC Radio 1 to have some AI fun on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Thanks to the type of groundbreaking tech featured in the drama, the audience was left wondering: was it Greg James as usual... or was it Deepfake Greg?

Forever Audio is a specialist audio agency with 10 in-house studios offering creative, audio media planning and buying, sonic identity creation and audio post production across commercial and spoken word content. We are passionate about the impact great audio can have for our clients, creating long term partnerships through collaboration, creativity and ensuring we are always on the same wavelength. Our aim is to consistently deliver world class audio services through creativity, innovation and technology. We hear every pin drop and always ensure that we’re all ears and able to meet our clients’ objectives effectively. With a proven track record in delivering successful audio campaigns for both UK based and global brands over the years, we are one of only 2 global agencies trusted to create bespoke, music-led experiences within the Spotify app as their preferred creative partner across the UK and North America. We commit to creating ideas that set imaginations on fire and making excellent audio that makes your heart pound. As a team of audiophiles, we are constantly obsessing about sound and pushing the boundaries of noisy innovation. We are the people you can rely on when the deadline is tight; the team that gives everything to make it just right.

You may not have heard of us as an agency, but you’ll have certainly heard our work. Kalua launched in 2008 and were one of the UK’s first creative audio agencies. We’ve grown organically since then, and today are a very unique company - an award-winning audio creative agency and audio production company all under one roof, and one of the leading names in the industry for creative audio campaigns. In 2023 our work was heard by over 17.4 million people every month. From our base at MediaCityUK, we support brands and their agencies as an audio partner that they can tap into whenever needed. We help develop campaign concepts and scripts, cast voice talent, produce the audio in our own studios, and deliver the work to any radio or audio streaming platform. We’re also the only agency that monitors radio campaigns live on air. What makes us unique is not just the capabilities we have in-house, but the depth of expertise and industry insight that we fold into every campaign we produce. Through working solely in audio for the last two decades, our knowledge of the radio and audio market is unparalleled - we constantly monitor and exploit trends, advising clients on best practice in audio advertising. Kalua are a dedicated team of audio advertising specialists, that can partner with brands and agencies as needed, to produce engaging and effective audio campaigns and content.

In less than four years, Pierce has risen through the ranks at Forever Audio to become a midweight creative, establishing himself as an integral part of the team and gaining solid and varied experience in audio scriptwriting along the way, from commercial work to long form fiction, on top of various forms of digital copywriting. Pierce has a knack for crafting engaging, creative audio ads that resonate with their target audience while telling a story, with a particular reverence for writing richly detailed immersive audio spots. Over the years, he’s written audio for numerous high profile global brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Disney, Samsung and Smirnoff to name a few.

Despite his relative inexperience and developing skillset, Eddie Scott has made an indelible impact on the UK podcast industry over the past three years. He has been the driving force, and often the sole creative, on many of the most impactful, high-value and ambitious campaigns and long-term partnerships in the space. Eddie’s natural flair for storytelling and innate sense of creativity has been coupled with a hunger to learn by honing practices from scripting to storyboarding, which has seen him develop into a creative of undeniable talent and immense potential for the future. It is not an exaggeration to say that no one person has played a greater role in shaping the nature of brand storytelling in UK podcasting and the wider audio sector, and raising standards whilst doing so, than Eddie. His love of audio, dedication to developing his craft and effervescent creativity has delivered outstanding results for clients and put smiles on the faces of creators and listeners alike.

Amy Pearce is a very modern audio creative who is consistently pushing boundaries by challenging brands and creators to think differently about how to tell stories within podcasting. Her understanding of how to use each of the channels within the podcast ecosystem - from audio to video and social - is second to none and her work has an undeniably distinctive style which routinely delivers excellent results for clients. Amy is a compelling storyteller who possesses a rare skill in being able to hone in on the core human truth or standout line from a story, often something which has been overlooked by others or lost amongst hours of recordings, and present it to the audience in a way that resonates. She’s able to deftly handle sensitive subjects and consistently uses lighter ones to bring a smile to people’s faces. Her work, from pitch decks to creator briefings and finished assets, has a streak of joy that runs through it.

Ben Hauke is Head of Sound at Pitch & Sync. Formerly in house at Mother London since joining P&S he's lead on audio campaigns for Giffgaff, Pizza Express, and Black Bottle Whiskey to name a few. As well as his post production work Ben is also an active music producer and DJ who has over 10 million plays on Spotify alone.

To launch the announcement of the British Heart Foundation’s largest ever research grant into genetic heart disease, we raised awareness of how donations to the BHF are used by doing something that had never been done before on UK radio. An idea that wasn’t an ‘off the shelf’ solution. An idea that cut through, not just by disrupting a mass market media experience, but by also disrupting the ads of some of the UK’s most well-known brands. All with just 28 days from brief to launch to pull it off.

THE INDEED JOB JUKEBOX: INSPIRING BETTER WORK THROUGH MUSIC Indeed, the world’s leading job site is driven by their mission to ‘help all people get jobs’. Our challenge was to inspire younger workers to consider new roles on Indeed given their higher likelihood of switching jobs. Our research identified that music helps GenZ to discover things about themselves. Recognising that both our music tastes and job choices are tied to our personalities, we got workers to reconsider their careers through the lens of their music. Together, Forever Audio and EssenceMedia.com harnessed beta technology on Spotify to build a custom platform called The Indeed Job Jukebox, marrying Indeed’s vast job search data with Spotify’s individualised listening data. We identified the most unique music listening trends for the top 22 job categories on Indeed, representing 820 job titles. Users’ listening history was compared against these results to generate their personal top-five career matches, each with a unique musical fact. Users were prompted to explore jobs on Indeed, and share their results on social with a bespoke graphic and an invitation for their friends. Dynamic ad copy and ad soundtrack, tailored to the user's listening in real time, directed people to the Job Jukebox to build interest. The experience hit a high note. The engagement rate exceeded benchmarks by 2.5x, while the social shares beat the benchmark by 8x. Over 13,500 users have been driven to Indeed to find better work so far, exceeding the benchmark by 3x!

Founded in 2020 by podcasters for podcasters, Adelicious is the leading independent British podcasting hosting platform. Our founders recognised the need for honesty, integrity, and fairness in the podcast advertising landscape. Their vision led to Adelicious, a platform built around quality inventory, excellent customer service, a podcaster-first mentality, and innovation. Today, as an invite-only network, we're the trusted choice for some of the world's leading podcasts, with more than 30m global listens per month. At Adelicious, we believe in a personalised, results-driven approach that ensures both podcasters and advertisers benefit from our hands-on expertise. Our direct relationships with every partner we work with exemplifies our dedication to excellence. Whether it's through host-reads, pre-recorded spot ads, or bespoke branded content, we make it our mission to connect brands with highly engaged podcast audiences. Adelicious is where premium meets personal, offering a unique podcasting experience that's designed to deliver real value and success in the podcasting world.

Bauer Media Advertising’s team unite under a core ethos of ‘together we create impact’, collaborating with our clients and agencies to produce creative and innovative solutions that deliver genuine impact. With brands renewing their partnerships, new advertisers coming on board, record-breaking results, and new audio attribution tools, the Bauer Media sales team had a market-beating 2023.

Octave launched in 2020 and was established to allow brands and advertisers to target premium, addressable audiences powered by first-party data at an exceptional scale, in a transparent and brand-safe environment. The Octave sales team is constantly proactive and front and centre within agencies. During the last year, the team have adopted structured “agency plans” that have dictated the strategy with our ethos being to ensure that innovation is key to everything we do, to bring incremental revenue above our market share. The central point of the implemented ‘agency plans’ was to ensure that the sales team focused on providing bespoke data-led solutions, which would drive revenue and ensure that clients would receive tailor-made packages to best suit their brand and targeting needs. Following the strategic intervention, there has been a significant revenue increase from our key agency partners. This success is also reflected in the direct sales growth of +7% YOY. When comparing this to the WARC forecast for online radio to increase by +1.3% YOY, it showcases the strong year the sales team has had performing significantly above the industry average across various digital mediums. The team have coupled these new agency plans with the launch of ‘Octave Podcasts, an exciting “go to market” proposition, proving constantly that despite being a small team, they are the best in class and go above and beyond to serve both agencies and clients.

The Global Creative Team thrive on delivering the impossible, priding themselves on their work and making a difference – not just for the industry and advertisers, but for listeners as well. This year they’ve done a lot of all of that; producing and scripting 306 different ads for 196 brands, alongside delivering initiatives to encourage advertisers do more with their audio creative. This year’s work has been recognised both domestically and internationally on the awards circuit, picking up the Media Week Awards’ Grand Prix (the first time an audio campaign has been awarded it) and the only Cannes Lion, awarded in Media Creativity.

Acast Creative is a team of passionate creatives with an undying love of audio, who have been on a mission to change the face of what podcasting can mean for brands. Through their work with brands and creators, Acast Creative have successfully redefined the notion of a podcast campaign in recent years. Their pioneering work has seen; the creation of new audio formats which have been widely adopted across the industry, their campaigns consistently pick up awards and reach the top of the podcast charts, a fresh approach to live podcasting introduced and, above all, a consistent output of thoughtful, well-considered and beautifully crafted audio assets. However the team’s biggest area of focus has been in changing the idea of what a podcast campaign can be, in the mind’s of both listeners and advertisers. Through Acast Creative’s work many major brands have discovered a new role for podcasting in their media mix, moving beyond badging exercises and using the medium as a channel for simple objectives such as direct response. Brands including WhatsApp, Klarna, NatWest, Camelot, L’OR, BrewDog, Bumble, John Lewis, Costa, Indeed and EON Next have been able to use podcasting, for the first time, to tap into culture, deeply engage with their target audience and gain exceptional results thanks to Acast Creative’s ‘beyond the podcast’ approach to storytelling.

Forever Audio is a specialist audio agency with 10 in-house studios offering creative, audio media planning and buying, sonic identity creation and audio post production across commercial and spoken word content. We are passionate about the impact great audio can have for our clients, creating long term partnerships through collaboration, creativity and ensuring we are always on the same wavelength. Our aim is to consistently deliver world class audio services through creativity, innovation and technology. We hear every pin drop and always ensure that we’re all ears and able to meet our clients’ objectives effectively. With a proven track record in delivering successful audio campaigns for both UK based and global brands over the years, we are one of only 2 global agencies trusted to create bespoke, music-led experiences within the Spotify app as their preferred creative partner across the UK and North America. We commit to creating ideas that set imaginations on fire and making excellent audio that makes your heart pound. As a team of audiophiles, we are constantly obsessing about sound and pushing the boundaries of noisy innovation. We are the people you can rely on when the deadline is tight; the team that gives everything to make it just right.

Fresh Air is pioneering the use of podcasts as a content channel for brands. We encourage brands to build their own shows in the audio world rather than rent space in other people's, in both B2B and B2C. We extol the virtues of long form audio as a supremely engaging channel with unrivalled listener attention span, and help brands to create podcasts with creative flair and commercial nous. Nobody else spent 2023 creating a true crime comedy series for Wendy's, a celebrity chat show in a car for Auto Trader, a bespoke discussion forum for mortgage brokers from Phil Spencer and Barclays, or a punky, provocative show about financial services for Fintech company Iress. After many years of brands creating experimental vanity projects in the podcast space, Fresh Air has effectively moved clients into treating the medium as a strategically important, well-funded, creatively exciting content channel. We flex from booking A-listers discussing climate change for WWF to arranging debates about the global housing crisis for Deloitte. Each of these shows has its own strategy encompassing everything from talent and format development, through to promotion, atrribution and reporting ROI. Our brilliant team of producers are constantly developing new ideas and podcast concepts for brands, and our marketing team are interrogating the latest tools to track the effectiveness of podcasts alongside other, more established marketing & advertising media. We're super proud of the work we made last year, and even more excited about what's to come in 2024.

As the headline sponsor of Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball, Barclaycard wanted to fully leverage the equity of their association with the event and make it work as hard as possible for them, beyond just the two physical nights in London. To make this happen, Global worked with Barclaycard and their experiential agency M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment to create an event ‘eco-system’; a series of live activations around the UK that fed off the excitement of the ball to engage with not just with those who had tickets, but everyone that had bought into the excitement of Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball.

In 2022, L’OR needed to launch their first barista-style coffee machine into a on the fiercely competitive British market. Whilst ATL marketing made awareness gains for the brand, Havas devised a 360 partnership to showcase the craftmanship behind the brand that would connect with our audience and drive consideration. We crafted a media strategy that would position L’OR coffee as the sensual and premium choice, and turn every coffee break into a quality experience fuelled by storytelling. Working with Acast, the campaign centred around a series of live pop-events – L’OR Secret Podcast Experience. Carefully selected podcasters brought their passions to life alongside a celebrity guest – talking through ‘mastery’ in their own lens, all served up with L’OR coffee and a brand-inspired breakfast. We drove exclusivity and buzz with event teasers across ads, host reads, and talent socials in the days before the events. Acast’s owned and operated channels, talent’s socials and L’OR’s social channel were also used to showcase the events at a national scale, whist also driving to purchase with discount codes. The partnership delivered: Over 11m impressions across media delivery 7.2m social impressions 25% over delivery on branded episode listens Activity drove brand love from 32% to 48% +6% increase in spontaneous brand awareness. Helping L’OR to make a splash with their newest launch in market despite the fierce competition, whilst improving overall brand love and consideration.

This is the story of how Starbucks adapted to once in a generation market conditions and consumer behaviour change, exploiting the full breadth of innovative audio solutions to deliver record breaking business growth and return to pre-pandemic revenue levels. In 2022, Havas Media identified a new growth strategy for the Starbucks brand, rooted in a pivot towards an emerging audience and created a bold, meaningfully daring media strategy entrenched in the power of audio. A first of its kind approach for Starbucks, utilising linear to digital, podcasts content to playlist sponsorship, real-time data to help deliver dynamic messages to consumers at times of higher propensity to purchase, and even a new audio mnemonic. Starbucks used audio like never before, pushing the boundaries of the possible to deliver 27 record sales weeks across equity stores, +36% more transactions than FY21 and increased revenue despite lower footfall levels versus pre-pandemic.

Working with TFL, audio producer Sarah Myles & Chris Sweeney of Homo Sapiens, we produced an immersive 3D sponsorship that aimed to empower listens to act when they see sexual harassment on the London Underground. We spent the day recording with Chris, as he gave us a tour of Soho through a queer lens, including a ride on the tube, where he talked us through the excitement and community spirit that washes over a tube carriage during Pride. The same community spirit we can harness to prevent harassment that may occur on any given tube journey.

When people think of domestic abuse, they often think of physical violence, but the problem is more sinister. Financial abuse occurs in 95% of domestic abuse situations (source: Surviving Economic Abuse). 69% of people in the UK don’t see the two concepts as related, which explains why most people think they would just walk away if they were in an abusive relationship. But this is difficult to do when an abuser controls all the things money can buy; food, clothing, home, and the way out. The key to escaping is taking back control of your financial independence. To help people regain control of their personal finances, HSBC partnered with the domestic abuse charity, Hestia, and turned all of its branches into Safe Spaces. Creating anonymous refuges where people could seek help. Even if they didn’t bank with HSBC.

Reminiscence therapy is a form of drug-free treatment for people living with dementia, designed to improve their wellbeing. It aims to spark long forgotten memories using old photographs, moving images or in this case, audio. For this Christmas-timed campaign, we had the idea that even old advertising jingles could ‘ring a bell’ for someone living with dementia. So we decided to turn radio adspace into a moment of nostalgia for long forgotten radio ads of the past, and demonstrate the power of reminiscence to all. To create the campaign, we teamed up with Tea n’ Tunes, a dementia club that uses music to bring people together. And shared 4 classic ad jingles from the 60’s, 70s & 80s. Being able to record the real reactions and the conversations they created was wonderful. But then using these jingles to spark listeners own memories, allowed us to reach some of the million or so families affected by this awful disease. As families got back together for the holidays, we knew The Wayback VR App could help make it truly a Christmas to remember for some Supported by the Alzheimer’s Society, the Wayback VR is a form of reminiscence therapy available to all. Through a series of specially made memory films, it immerses people with dementia in thousands of memory triggers - from fashion to food and even old adverts. The product was awarded the British Challenge Dementia Prize and is available through the Alzheimer’s Society Shop.

It takes a certain kind of person to become a police officer. Although it's not about being superhuman, just human. This work for Lancashire Constabulary is about showcasing the reality of police work, and the skills and mindset needed to succeed. Using actual bodycam audio sourced from active police work, the team at navy&grey were able to illustrate aspects of policing in real life, and fully immerse the audience in an environment where decision making, care and communication are the difference between calmness and chaos. The result is a compelling piece of audio, with a simple but important message; if you can approach these real life, pressurised situations with the same cool headedness that you hear in the creative, then you could be a Police Officer for Lancashire Constabulary.

At Starling, everything we do has a clear purpose. Our bank was built to help people manage their money more effectively and as part of that, we don't charge additional fees when someone uses their card to pay for something or withdraw cash abroad. The purpose of our summer campaign was to raise awareness for our no fees overseas offering, thereby driving applications for our app-based current accounts. To achieve this, we created an audio ad, broadcast across a number of radio channels and hosted within multiple podcasts, either aimed at people over 45 or people interested in travel. Our two target audiences were families and people between 50-65, a group that may not want to use Starling as their primary bank account but who could be interested in using Starling to save on fees while travelling. Our audio ad taps into the popularity of language learning apps and tools and the idea of 'living like a local', in this case by paying with a debit card, rather than wads of cash. In the ad, we made references to the CDs used to learn languages, knowing that many of our listeners would hear the ad while driving, and made sure that our character, attempting to learn Spanish ahead of his holiday, sounded like he was making a valiant effort, yet also not quite getting the pronunciation right. We wanted it to be charming, funny and relatable, with a compelling explainer on how Starling could help.

Despite a huge rise in white-collar fraud, many businesses still underestimate it. This was a challenge for Medius, a B2B provider of anti-fraud software to finance professionals. How do you sell fraud prevention to a buyer who thinks fraud is something that happens to somebody else? The solution? A hard-hitting, moving story that was impossible to forget in the form of a True Crime podcast, a mass audience channel most B2B brands would never touch. The podcast, Accounts Deceivable, examined the human cost of financial fraud, asking the question: what does it take to commit a white-collar crime? And what does it feel like for victims to lose millions of dollars of company money? The True Crime format not only delivered a big audience for Medius’s messages, but it also wrapped those messages in a compelling and addictive story, ensuring 89% of listeners listened right to the end. Headline results? - A top 150 Apple business podcast, ranking alongside CNBC and Harvard Business Review: an astonishing achievement for a niche B2B brand – 50,000+ downloads, inside the top 20% of shows across all categories - 96% of audience featured within key markets of UK + US - Average episode consumption of 89%

BASF is the world’s largest Agricultural Solutions company and has a broad portfolio of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and seed treatments. BASF helps farmers to sustainably increase the yields and the quality of their crops without compromising the environment. Fresh Air Production is the UK’s leading producer of podcasts for brands. Improving the sustainability of agriculture is a priority of BASF and it extends far beyond the production of food. Farmers share the global challenges of climate change mitigation, increasing space for nature and protecting resources and BASF wanted to highlight the sustainable ways they are utilising their resources to better the environment and how they help the local communities they work with. BASF wants examine the threats to our food supply and explore the possible solutions, innovations and approaches that could keep the ever-growing number of hungry mouths fed. The Science Behind Your Salad podcast aims to shine a spotlight on the innovation, science and technology ensuring that planet and people stay healthy.

Brooks Macdonald (Female Folio) tackled the 'gender investing gap' with 'The She-Wolf Investor,' a podcast series with a £25k-£40k budget. The initiative aimed to revolutionize finance communication, acknowledging the potential $3.22 trillion assets lost due to gender disparities. The core strategy involved a twelve-episode educational series with high-caliber guests like Lisa Armstrong and Selina Flavius. 'The She-Wolf Investor' challenged traditional narratives, echoing strength and bravery for women in finance. Careful planning with Message Heard producers streamlined rich content into 12 episodes. A comprehensive budget prioritized professional production, avoiding pitfalls of amateur recordings. Strategic cross-promotion on 'Bright Minds' from Tickmill and renowned speakers ensured a successful launch. Results surpassed expectations, with a 26% increase in Female Folio membership. All episodes achieved over 110 downloads in the first 7 days, securing a top 25% position organically. Media recognition included a full-length Financial Times interview. Five-star ratings on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, coupled with positive reviews, demonstrated enthusiastic audience engagement. The podcast maintained a remarkable 77% female listenership, staying true to its 'women-first' approach. The initiative enriched brand exposure, created a more inclusive workplace, facilitated client interaction, and garnered awards, including the UK Content Awards and Women in Financial Advice Awards, highlighting its exceptional success.

IRESS is the biggest financial services technology company you’ve never heard of. It’s the invisible force powering 1 in 3 UK mortgages, the engine behind household brands like comparethemarket.com, and a global leader in financial advice and trading technology. If you're in the UK and have a financial adviser, pension, mortgage, life insurance or shares, chances are IRESS have had something to do with it. Everyone needs financial services, so IRESS is on a mission to make them easier to love. That means stepping out from behind the scenes and showing how they help make financial services a better experience for everyone. IRESS had tried to build brand awareness through white papers and blogs but were frustrated by stagnant performance analytics and a lack of reach. So, they decided to try something different. They realised the best way to get the industry’s attention was to provoke a conversation that had broad appeal and let outspoken experts do the talking. Working with Fresh Air Production, the UK’s leading producer of podcasts for brands, allowed IRESS to create a different from the norm, radical, thought-provoking podcast - Upfront. Hosted by comedian Olga Koch, the two series feature frank conversations with experts in financial literacy, education, brand, customer experience, trends, technology, and leadership, presented with a touch of love and a twist of anarchy designed to inspire action.

To launch the announcement of the British Heart Foundation’s largest ever research grant into genetic heart disease, we raised awareness of how donations to the BHF are used by doing something that had never been done before on UK radio. An idea that wasn’t an ‘off the shelf’ solution. An idea that cut through, not just by disrupting a mass market media experience, but by also disrupting the ads of some of the UK’s most well-known brands. All with just 28 days from brief to launch to pull it off.

FitnessGenes, a health-focused tech startup, aimed to boost awareness and credibility in the personalised health market. With low visibility in a growing sector, the company had a startup budget and a hard-to-reach audience of busy professionals 25-54. Identifying podcast partnerships as an effective way to launch brands in a trusted environment, we collaborated with Acast, and invited pod hosts to send off their DNA and document their own eight-week FG journey. 25 audio assets tailored for a health-conscious demographic were created, and FitnessGenes launched their first ever ATL campaign in June 2023. The campaign constituted a live experiment as hosts tested the product in real time. We enlisted trusted influencers in this space, including Dr Rupy of The Doctor’s Kitchen, Simon Mundie of Life Lessons, and Emma Guns of The Emma Guns Show, using sponsored reads and extensions to find our audience wherever they were listening. Tapping into a shared audience affinity for personalised health, we created two branded segments with Dr Rupy bringing FitnessGenes founder Dr Samantha Decombel onto his show, delving into his own DNA-based results. Exclusive promo codes yielded significant redemptions, and post campaign results showed triple-digit increases in sales and free account sign-ups, indicating significant short-term success. Launching our first ever ATL media campaign with podcast talent, strategically chosen for their aligned content and loyal follower base, not only successfully established FitnessGenes as a reputable and trustworthy brand but drove trial and redemptions beyond expectations.

Dish from Waitrose is the UK’s most hospitable food and entertainment podcast and the only branded podcast to have become a mainstay of the UK audio charts. It has received over 69 million organic video views and attracted some of the UK’s biggest celebrities as guests. The show’s formula is simple: each episode features a recipe from Waitrose, cooking tips from a Michelin star chef (Angela Hartnett), drinks recommendations from one of our beloved broadcasters (Nick Grimshaw), and a meal enjoyed by some of the UK’s favourite celebrities, who in turn share their own food and life stories with the Dish audience whilst advocating for the quality of Waitrose food and service.

Legal & General Retail are a UK market leader in life insurance, workplace pensions and retirement income. Fresh Air Production is the UK’s leading producer of podcasts for brands. Legal & General wanted to create a piece of genuinely helpful and useful content for a young audience to confront and understand the topic of financial health and consider Legal & General to be a source of sound advice in a confusing and often contradictory world. The storytelling had to be done from the perspective of the audience, in language that they trusted and engaged with. Any sort of ‘top down’ approach would feel immediately patronising and irrelevant. So, we set out to find a voice who could help us to create punchy audio content which created this genuine connection. Host Kia Commodore was that voice, and she delivered perfectly. Using their audience insights, Legal & General concluded a good way to meet their objectives, and for a relatively low budget, was to create relatable and engaging content and promote it via TikTok and Instagram. Legal & General knew podcasts were a valuable way to reach audiences with brand messages and having had great success working with Fresh Air before, they decided to partner with them again and create a new podcast delivering financial tips and insights in a fresh short format, then use this content to support and feed their new TikTok channel. Legal & General’s primary measure was not reach, but engagement and the results have been amazing.

Life lessons, from the inside. This four-part-series, hosted by Ben Bailey-Smith (Doc Brown), hands the mic to prison staff and former prisoners across the UK, uncovering life-lessons from behind brick-walls and barbed-wire-fences. Anchored in rich human stories, emotive themes and immersive sound design, each episode features a litany of learnings - from how to to deal with conflict to giving others a second chance.

“Pack Your Bags” is a funny and educational travel podcast, designed to engage and inspire listeners for their next travel adventure. The podcast is specifically designed to fill a gap in the podcast market for travel enthusiasts - choosing a comedic and popular host to interview interesting and smart travel-lovers who would resonate with the target audience. The strategy for TUI was “listener first”, ensuring branding was light touch to warrant that the podcast would be a stand-alone success and not alienate listeners by feeling like an advert. The guests are known personalities, with each giving an insight into their greatest travel adventures and misadventures — and how these experiences have enriched their lives. The range of travel loving guests were picked to align with the passion points of TUI’s audiences, ensuring a diverse and inclusive listening experience. The format of the podcast was designed to engage and encourage repeat listening. The length was set at 30-45 minutes. In each episode, guests surprised comedian Russell Kane with their three must-pack travel items, which range from nostalgic mementos to practical accessories, concluding with a “Quick Fire” round answering fun, relatable travel questions. Are you ready? It’s time to Pack Your Bags!

A scary truth – Brits put up with bad fast food. Frozen burgers, cold fries, chicken nuggets made of … well, not chicken. And yet, the behemoths who serve us this smorgasbord of mediocrity are well-loved brands and hugely profitable businesses *raises eyebrows*. So, how does a new brand entering the market, offering better food, break this behaviour of eating on autopilot and wake people up to a better option? By using the much-loved, albeit undervalued, cultural medium of podcasting to engage emotionally with Brits. Rather than just advertising through podcasts, Wendy's UK partnered with VML London to launch our very own comedic true-crime podcast, ‘The Burger Files’. The seven-episode series highlights the scary reality of competitor fast-food experiences, whilst presenting Wendy's Baconator as the superior choice for Brits. Hosted by American comedian Sara Barron and developed with renowned comedy writer Joel Morris, the tongue-in-cheek episodes dramatise real fast-food horror stories from social media. The podcast presents these stories in true-crime style, deliciously borrowing tropes of the genre, crafting a captivating narrative that immerses listeners in a relentless quest for the truth behind fast-food related horrors. And sure enough, we opened the eyes (and ears) of Brits to the failings of our competitors. Listeners spent 33,591 minutes, 560 hours, or 23 days listening to The Burger Files. Crucially, 80% were in our target audience, 18–34-year-olds. We charted in Spotify’s True Crime charts in just four weeks. And after seven episodes, we broke into the top 20% of all UK Podcasts.

Having previously delivered Stripped, William Hill’s first foray into branded content, we were tasked with coming up with a fresh content idea that would reach and engage new and larger audiences, and further establish William Hill as a leading publisher of premium sports content. Our response was Up Front with Simon Jordan, a hard-hitting and original branded podcast featuring some of the world’s best known and most interesting sporting personalities. Overseeing day-to-day project management; audio, video and social production; and social distribution, we have delivered a ground-breaking video podcast that has generated incredible results for William Hill. Since launch in late April 2023, the results have smashed all KPIs. Up Front has been the highest performing branded podcast in the UK, dominated the sports podcast charts, generated extensive pick-up from mainstream media and seen huge engagement on social media, including William Hill’s own channels. William Hill now have an original, unique asset that is a self-perpetuating marketing machine, has well and truly established them as a publisher of premium sports content, has generated huge engagement, and has driven mass awareness and increased brand affinity.

Working with Chris & Rosie Ramsay, hosts of the chart-topping ‘Shagged. Married. Annoyed’, we produced a bonus Christmas special for The National Lottery. The special featured the Ramsay’s trip to ‘Footprints Community Cafe’, for their first ever on-location episode, visiting a National Lottery-funded food bank that does all it can to help the local Redcar community navigate the cost of living crisis. Filled to the brim with Christmas spirit, this heartwarming half-hour had Chris & Rosie sharing a cuppa and a few cheese twists with the cafe's founder, Ruth, and local volunteer, Carol. This inspiring duo gave Chris & Rosie the lowdown on how, with a little help from the National Lottery, Footprints has grown from a small side project into a community lifeline, running 9 food banks, a men's shed, dementia services and a whole lot more.

DAZN, a rising star in the UK's boxing broadcasting market, faced the daunting task of challenging in an established market. With low awareness compared to established broadcasters, DAZN made a big move by signing an exclusive deal with the UKs biggest boxing star, Anthony Joshua. Working in partnership with Dentsu and ACAST, we crafted a story that resonated with all sports fans using one of the biggest personalities in sport, Peter Crouch, on one of the biggest audio platforms in the UK, That Peter Crouch Podcast. We knew that sports fans love real human stories, so we introduced two of the biggest names in Boxing, Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua to That Peter Crouch Podcast, creating some of the most engaging content the show had ever seen. The special episode of the podcast was the best performing piece of content across the campaign, beating forecast listens by 256%, smashing benchmarks achieving a listen through rate of 91%. In fact, it became the second biggest branded episode in Acast history! Proving the content resonated with our audience and provided relevance, excitement and inspiration to fans.

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Following a re-brand of The Body Shop's best-selling skincare range from Drops of Youth to Edelweiss, Craft were tasked with making the Edelweiss range and its Resilient properties famous. But to compete with a new breed of social first competitors, we needed to do it in a way that commanded buzz and attention. Our challenge? To drive positive buzz of The Body Shop and its Edelweiss range to catapult it to fame. Following extensive research into our audience of millennial women, we unearthed an insight about resilience today, flipping a word that is often associated with negativity and turning it into something fundamentally positive. What resulted was a campaign celebrating the stories of real life women, leaning into a trend that captured cultural conversation today. The trend was nostalgia (and nostalgia in music, in particular), which led to our big idea - to create a nostalgic feel good anthem all about women and resilience today. With our positive message running across audio (Radio & Spotify), digital and THE channel for beauty and music virality today (TikTok), our positive results proved the campaign as a hit. Not only did it pay back (ROI of £1.96 according to econometrics, and an estimated ROI of £3.96 with additional tail impact), it also resulted in the greatest number of #thebodyshop and #edelweiss mentions on TikTok for the last three years in the UK.

Behind the Lock is a brand new series by WhatsApp from Meta and Acast Creative, which gets the nation's favourite podcasters playing games designed to reveal the contents of their real, usually private chats. Why? Because WhatsApp never would.

Dulux Heritage is a range of paints that bring a timeless, luxury colour palette to modern life. And the radio campaign was created and produced to complement this style.

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When we play The National Lottery, our mind (understandably) drift to how we’d spend our winnings. However, what tends to receive less attention is the significant role that each National Lottery ticket plays in supporting and ensuring the survival of charities and grassroots causes across the country. Acast recognized the need for a shift. We dispatched some of the most well -loved podcasters across the country to cast a spotlight on these 'Good Causes.' Collaborating with renowned figures such as Fearne Cotton, Jessie Ware, Dan Snow, Chris Ramsay, and many others, as they shined a spotlight not towards their usual celebrity guests but onto extraordinary and inspiring individuals who are making a tangible difference in their communities.. To date, Acast & Camelot’s branded partnership is Acast’s top performing branded audio campaign in our history, with 1,200,00 listens to date. The result of which has been Camelot being top of mind for listeners at +76% unprompted awareness.

In 2023, Bauer Media, The Story Lab and Wickes continued their long-standing partnership and, now in its twelfth year, had to ensure it delivered even more integrated, creative, innovative and effective campaigns across their platforms. The main campaign’s aims were to drive awareness and brand consideration whilst increasing conversion by communicating offers and driving action. This supported the overarching ongoing mission: for Wickes to be the partner of choice for Home Improvers and Trade. Through the ongoing sponsorship of the Absolute Radio Dave Berry Breakfast show, Octave digital audio activity, outside broadcasts and listener interactions, the partnership continues to growth from strength to strength.

A year-long partnership between motors and The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X saw Chris, his co-presenters and the shows team of producers working with motors to devise, create and deliver a year’s worth of engaging promotions and content that kept motors.co.uk messaging fresh and relevant across the year. Regular features that celebrated the joy of owning and driving car, matched with the practicality of buying a car from motors were woven into the fabric of the show, helping to delver 20% point increase in those saying they would buy a car through motors.

In a saturated market with tough competition, Disney+ needed a partnership to take their streaming service to ‘Infinity and Beyond’. The advertising challenge was clear; help increase Disney’s subscriber count and drive retention. As well as increasing habitual viewing and importantly change the overall viewer perception that Disney’s not just for kids. As Bauer’s biggest ever single creative campaign, its annual partnership with Disney+ was truly unique. With a challenge of targeting adult streamers, we created a flexible partnership that was a multi-sponsorship opportunity, allowing Disney to collaborate with all relevant Bauer brands and platforms to unlock mass market reach and an array of creative opportunities. This innovative media strategy used the uniquely broad, multi-brand portfolio that Bauer Media offers across audio, digital and publishing.

How do you break your mass-market everyday brand into the posh paint club? Dulux Heritage needed to up its emotional connection to make it accepted within the premium aesthetics market. We challenged the notion that paint brands need to be seen, not heard. Through storytelling and immersive ASMR, that’s autonomous sensory meridian response soundscapes. We created audio content that brought to life rich colouful imagery showing that you don’t need to see a colour to feel and envisage it. We chose Fearne Cotton's Happy Place and Jessie Ware’s Table Manners to introduce Heritage’s colour palette using the power of language and sound. 68% of listeners recalled Dulux or Dulux Heritage - which is way above Nielsen benchmarks. There was an 8% increase post versus pre in recall amongst those planning to decorate in the next 12 months. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sound paints a powerful emotional connection.